There are two readings for the week but this kicks off the second block in which I want you to begin to develop and learn how to exploit academic networks.

The first thing to do is to sign on to the two large academic social media sites, Academia and ResearchGate. There are other sites that share papers but these two are good places to begin. Once you have signed on take some time to familiarise yourself with the search functions of both and then start searching by trying out some of the key phrases or terms that you use to describe your field of interest. You might also try searching for some of the academics whose work interests you or whose work has been influential in your thinking to date.

Google scholar is also a site with which you will be familiar. As you begin to publish your work it is worth considering setting up a profile on this site which will collect all of your publications, making it easy for anyone interested in your work to find references for them all in one place.

It would be good to share your reactions, feelings, experience of these two sharing/networking sites on Slack.

If you are interested in some of the debates around these sites, a good place to go is the LSE impact blog. A search for Academia and/or ResearchGate will locate commentary. For instance, here is useful comparison of a number of these academic sharing platforms.